Epaphras

The holy apostle Epaphras, one of the Seventy, was a companion of the holy apostle Paul and is mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians and in that to Philemon. He is commemorated on 4 January, in the synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

In the epistles of Paul

Paul calls him in the Epistle to the Colossians “our beloved fellow servant and faithful minister of Christ” and praises his labour in prayer for the believers at Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. Epaphras was, it seems, from Colossae and was perhaps brought to the faith by Paul himself, in the time of his ministry at Ephesus. The Epistle to Philemon calls him Paul’s fellow prisoner; according to tradition he was with the apostle in bonds at Rome.

According to tradition

According to the tradition of the Church, Epaphras was bishop of the city of Colossae and of the Churches of Laodicea and Hierapolis, in Asia Minor. The Church of Cyprus commemorates him on other days also. Some have taken him as the same as Epaphroditus, but there is no proof that he is the same man.